Drapery pleat spacing and equalizing means



Jan. 2, 1968 r R. L. SNYDER 3,361,190

DRAPERY PLEA'I' SPACING AND EQUALIZING MEANS Filed June 23, 1965 Fig.2 v

8 SPACE /8 32 3 36 *6 INVENTOR.

32 34 Riley L. Snyder Patented Jan. 2, 1968 3,361,190 DRAPERY PLEAT SPACENG AND EQUALKZING MEANS Riley L. Snyder, 2618 Louise Lane, Billings, Mont. 102 Filed June 23, 1965, Ser. No. 466,284 5 Claims. (Cl. 160-4530) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The drapery pleat spacing and equilizing means has to do with a plurality of nylon spacers capable of use singly and collectively. The material used in the manufacture of each spacer is amply resilient that the jaw-like terminal heads carried by the split sleeve-like body can be manually squeezed together and readily inserted into and through the usual trackingslot in a traverse rod. When released these heads spring apart and hold the spacer in place but permit it to he slid by hand. These spacers are designed to snap into place between the usual drapery hanger brackets or slides in a manner to evenly space the pleats in a given wall area, that is, when the drapery is stacked in its open position.

The present invention relates to readily applicable and removable pleat spacing means which is functionally designed and structurally adapted for use on and in conjunction with a traverse rod of a type which has met with widespread adoption and use for window drapes such as are popularly used with or without headboards.

As will be evident from the accompanying drawing, the present concept has to do with a tubular or hollow curtain rod wherein one longitudinal sidewall is provided with a lengthwise slot constituting a track and referred to in the trade as a traverse rod. In accordance with popular practice ano procedure, pleated draperies are neatly suspended from the traverse rod usually by slidingly mounted hanger brackets or slides. While such slides and brackets are of various styles and forms, it will sufiice here to construe the ones under advisement as a type made from nylon or equivalent rnoldable plastice material and sometimes referred to in the trade as manually adjustable drapery carriers. To be more explicit, the hanger brackets and carriers under consideration are similar to those herein shown and also shown for example in the patent to Ault et al., 2,848,735. It is, as a matter of fact, a commonly marketed type of hanger slide and corresponds to the type herein shown and described. Accordingly, and with this general background information in mind, it is to be further pointed out that when a drapery, that is the type having pleats at the upper end, is open the wall area covered thereby is usually greater tthan the space needed to properly stack the drapery thus posing a problem with respect to even and desirably uniform spacing of the pleats. As the drapery is opened, each pleat progressively pushes the next pleat back until the front edge of the drapery is even with the edge of the window casing. Thus the pleats next to the window are crowded together and those near the end of the traverse rod are objectionably wide apart.

It is an object of the present invention to make avail able simple, practical and economical nylon or equivalent spacers, more particularly, spacers which have expansible and contractible component parts and which can be applied and brought into use at will. To the ends desired, these spacers, which can be used singly or in pairs, are placed in end-to-end abutting relationship and slidably mounted in the track or slot of the traverse rod and are such in construction and purpose that they overcome the above objectionable result and suspend the drapes in a well-balanced neatly hung manner in that, even when the drapery at each end is stacked in the aforementioned open position, all of the pleats are spread apart in an attractive and uniform manner whereby to provide the well hung eye appeal desired.

Briefly summarized each spaced is of block-like form in general appearance, and more specifically, comprises a split sleeve wherein the split end portions can be squeezed together and wherein a two-part or sectional head provides the retaining means, the jaw-like component parts of said head being joined with the coacting portions of the sleeve by way of a two-part or split openable and closeable keying and tracking neck.

These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view in perspective section showing a portion of a wall, a window, an end portion of a traverse rod and also a single drapery or drape at the left and emphasizing how, as a result of the spacing means, the pleats are caused to hang with requisite nicety in the uniformly equalized manner shown.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary View showing the traverse rod, pins and hangers from the rearward or wall side and which, more significantly, shows the spacing means or spacers and how they are constructed and utilized.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view taken on the plane of the section line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but with parts removed and showing the curtain or traverse rod and one of the spacers and how it can be squeezed between the fingers in order to apply and remove it.

FIG. 5 is a view in perspective of the spacer by itself.

FIG. 6 is a view taken on the plane of the section line 6-6 of FIG. 5

Referring now to FIG. 1, the room or equivalent wall is denoted at A and the window at B. The conventionally used drapery is designated at C, the uniformly hung pleats at D and the upper gathered portions thereof at E. A fragmentary portion of a conventional traverse rod is denoted at $5, the same being mounted in relation to the wall and window and curtain in a customary manner. As better shown in FIG. 4, the traverse rod is of hollow or tubular elongated form and one wall 10 is imporforate and the other wall 12 is provided with an elongated slot 14 referred to in the trade as a guide track. The over-all slotted tube constitutes a commonly used traverse rod. To be sure, the traverse rod, as shown in FIG. 2, is provided with fixed attaching bracket means ltd at one end and relatively movable supporting bracket means 18 at the left, that is the other end. The aforementioned drapery hangers or slides are denoted at 20, each is made of one-piece rnoldable nylon or equivalent material and has a roller-like guide or shoe at 22 which is operable slidingly in the trackway as suggested in FIG. 3. The main portion of the slide is exposed, the over-all slide being denoted at 24 and the pendant portion being denoted at 26 and having eye means to accommodate the hook 23 on the upper end of the drapery-supporting pin 30.

The component parts set forth in the detailed description so far are old and well-known expedients. The contribution to the art here is the novel and highly desirable spacing means. More explicitly, the spacing means is denoted as a nylon or equivalent easily applicable and re movable attaohmenbtype spacer 32 (FIG. 5). It is within the purview of the concept to employ these spacers either singly or collectively. Each spacer preferably comprises a block-like body portion, more particularly a generally cylindrical short sleeve 34 which is split along one side and provided along the slit with enlarged and suitably flattened guides or abutments 36. The opposed parallel jaw members, also of rectangular block-like form, are denoted at 38 and are alike and conjointly define a split head, these head portions being connected to the body member by way of a split neck of the type shown in FIG. 6. More specifically the neck comprises a pair of opposed spaced semi-circular segments or components 40 which can be squeezed together in the manner shown in FIG. 4 to facilitate application and removal of the spacer 32 and can be released whereupon the inherent resilient properties serve to slidingly key the half sections or components of the neck in place in the track or slot. Instead of using one long spacer it may be desirable and permissible to use spacers of any feasible of practical size so that one may be used, or for that matter any combination of spacers may be used to achieve a desired end result. Accordingly, the spacers will vary in size as may be needed. In fact, by inserting suitably proportioned drapery pleat spacers between the aforementioned slides 21%, in single or multiple units, whichever is found to be necessary to achieve the best space size requirements, the pleats of the thus well hung drapery will be evenly spaced over the entire wall. Each spacer 32 is so designed that it may be snapped in and out of the slot in the traverse rod without removing the ends or dismantling the rod, this being a highly important phase of the overall concept. It will be understood too that the spacer is to control the stacking area only and does not attempt to control all of the pleats at one time as is apparently the objective of other devices in this field of invention.

It is submitted that a careful consideration of the specification in conjunction with the drawing will enable the reader to obtain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the spacer by itself, as shown in FlG. 5, its construction in FIG. 6, the manner of applying and removing it in FIG. 4, and its significant purpose in the overall combination as best shown in FIG. 2. Therefore, a more extended description is regarded as unnecessary.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invent-ion. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. In combination, an elongated tubular member adapted to be fixedly mounted in a horizontal position when in use and having a vertical wall provided with an elongated track slot and defining and providing a traverse rod for draperies, a plurality of like but individual dra-pery hanger brackets slidingly mounted in said slot at longitudinally spaced points, each bracket having a pendant portion provided with a hooked drapery attaching and suspending pin, at least one drape provided at its upper portion with uniformly constructed and spaced gather ing pleats connected to and hung by said pins, spacers of a predetermined length, said spacers being compatible with the ungathered portions between the respective groups of pleats in said drape, said spacers being readily attachable to and detachable from said traverse rod and slidingly mounted in said slot and interposed between and abutting adjacent ones of said hanger brackets in a manner evenly and uniformly spacing said pleats when said drape is stacked in its open position.

2. The structure according to claim 1, and wherein said spacers are of block-like form, are the same in length and are adapted to be used either singly or collectively contingent on the requirements of a given situation.

3. The structure according to claim 2, and wherein said each block-like spacer comprises a split expansible and contlractible sleeve provided on its split side with an attaching and retaining means embodying a split head and split neck, the oriented coacting components thereof having the capability of detachably and adjustably mounting the sleeve, whereby said spacer can be attached, detached and otherwise handled at will without regard to the components of the traverse rod, the drapery, hangers or drapery attaching pins.

4. The structure according to claim 3, and wherein said spacer comprises a one-piece moldable nylon unit and wherein component portions of said sleeve proximal to said wall and slot are in the form of enlarged abutmerits, the latter bridging and abutting coacting edge portions of said slot.

5. The structure according to claim 3, and wherein said spacer comprises a one-piece moldable nylon unit and wherein component portions of said sleeve proximal to said wall and slot are in the form of enlarged abutments, the latter bridging and abutting coacting edge portions of said slot, said neck being made up of spaced parallel resilient semi-circular half-sections capable of be ing squeezed together to reduce the normal expanded dimension of said neck, said head comprising a pair of spaced parallel head-forming members.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 515,097 2/1894 Schofield 16-87.2 X 2,627,625 2/1953 Kunath 1687.4 X 2,706,827 4/1955 Lindner l695 2,848,734 8/1958 Ault -345 X 2,848,735 8/1958 Ault et al. l687.4 X 3,025,560 3/1962 Lindner 1687.6

DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. 

